


a YOUTHFUL paradox

by goddcoward



Category: Naruto
Genre: Fourth Shinobi World War, Gen, Jinchuuriki!Madara, M/M, Minific
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 13:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddcoward/pseuds/goddcoward
Summary: “Listen, old man,” says Obito, deadly serious. “I know he looks like a turtle on steroids, but he’s better with taijutsu than anyone, and I mean it. He will beat your ass until it’s concave and then do it again, all while smiling. It’s unnerving.”Madara snorts, partly in offense at being called old and being disrespected so, partly to ridicule his silly descendant. “He’s no Hashirama, and beyond that he’s just one man. How hard can it be?”Very hard, as it turns out.





	a YOUTHFUL paradox

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WrithingBeneathYou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrithingBeneathYou/gifts).

> for the record this is not my fault and i refuse to take any blame.

“Listen, old man,” says Obito, deadly serious. “I know he looks like a turtle on steroids, but he’s better with taijutsu than anyone, and I mean it. He will beat your ass until it’s concave and then do it again, all while smiling. It’s unnerving.”

Madara snorts, partly in offense at being called old and being disrespected so, partly to ridicule his silly descendant. “He’s no Hashirama, and beyond that he’s just one man. How hard can it be?”

Very hard, as it turns out.

In more ways than one.

“UCHIHA-SAMA!” Konoha’s Green Beast screams, his voice carrying obnoxiously over the clamor of battle. “THIS IS NOT VERY YOUTHFUL OF YOU!”

Madara doesn’t know why that insult fucking hurts, but it does. It’s not unlike being yelled at by an extremely YOUTHFUL! Hashirama.

Of course, not even Hashirama can compare to whatever the fuck this monster is, the monster Obito, that brat, dared to call a man.

He can’t possibly be human.

The Eight Gates are open. Gai’s body glows from within with a kind of blinding ethereal light, and Madara’s eyes hurt just from looking at him – something he hadn’t thought possible with his Rinnegan, but it just fucking figures.

He smells like tree leaves and clean winds and citrus sweat, and the very vision of him sets Madara’s heart to thundering for reasons he couldn’t hope to articulate, even at knifepoint.

Obito has a respectably dramatic falling-out with a silver-haired man who appears to be his boyfriend and Madara, jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails, strongest shinobi to have ever walked the earth, doesn’t even notice.

He’s a little busy getting his ass beat concave by a turtle on steroids.

He doesn’t hear what words he and Gai exchange on the subject of the youthfulness of taking over the world via unbreakable genjutsu, but they are heated and passionate, and Sage almighty this man is somehow worse than an Uchiha when it comes to emotions of heartrending strength.

Five minutes later, Madara’s on his back, tails thrashing, and Gai is settled over his waist, dark eyes trained on him, bowl cut blowing gently in the wind, and it’s more flattering on him than it ever was on Hashirama, that idiot.

“Why,” he asks, and his voice is soft, curious. “Why?”

“You don’t understand,” Madara hisses, because this creature may have bested him, but he is still himself, and he will not be defeated so easily. “This world is tainted, ugly, wrong—”

“It has things like ducklings and Kakashi and my beloved students! How could it be wrong?”

Madara boggles. “You do understand that there’s a war, right? Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk? My path is a solution to all that, a way to find true peace.”

“Without conflict,” Gai says, eyes narrowing, thick brows furrowing in confusion, “tranquility has no meaning. Without darkness, there is no such thing as light. The bad is an intrinsic part of the good, Uchiha-sama. Do you not see that?”

He stares.

Gai smiles, and all of the tension bleeds out of him. “Let me show you.”

They walk into the new world, hands knotted together, Gai leading a stumbling Madara into a light he's been too blind to see for decades.

It's beautiful.


End file.
